Here's our roundup of games news over the last week (8-15 Feb 2010) for our lucky readers (this is the first time we've done this on G/L, so let us know if you like it...)

INDUSTRY:

Results

• Activision-Blizzard sales up significantly: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/activision-blizzard-financials-better-than-expected and http://www.industrygamers.com/news/wow-call-of-duty-drive-activision-blizzards-sales-to-428-billion-in-09
• EA sales down but digital distribution revenue up 30%: http://www.industrygamers.com/news/game-sales-dip-in-eas-holiday-quarter-as-digital-revenues-climb-30/ (more on EA below)
• UbiSoft sales down: http://www.industrygamers.com/news/ubisofts-holiday-sales-decline-publisher-refocusing-on-high-end-games/
• Square Enix sales up significantly: http://www.industrygamers.com/news/square-enix-09-sales-soar-on-dragon-quest-final-fantasy-and-batman/
• Disney sales down: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/game-revenues-down-at-disney
• NCSoft sales double and profits up 11 fold: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/ncsoft-experiences-1-fold-profit-increase-in-q4 (thanks to their MMOs' performances)
• Viacom profits up but sales down on poor Rock Band performance: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/rock-band-sales-sting-viacom

• "Disney, Warner, Viacom pose 'serious threat' to publishers", says Screen Digest report: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/disney-warner-viacom-pose-serious-threat-to-publishers and http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/us-media-companies-present-multi-faceted-competition-for-games-publishers
  (Nutshell summary: "Big Media" like Disney/Warner/Viacom is investing heavily in games and is now focusing on developing own IP (rather than licencing it out) across different platforms. Screen Digest predicts they will "command a significant portion of the market by 2013".  So farewell then, licencing deals?)
• Business Week article on EA's problems and investors' lack of confidence: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_08/b4167064465834.htm
• GameFly launches $50m IPO: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/gamefly-files-USD50m-IPO
  (is secondary retail seller GameFly a bit late to the party, given the current buzz is about secondary digital sales?)

• Zynga acquires Serious Business: http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/11/zynga-serious-business/ and http://www.industrygamers.com/news/zynga-get-serious/
• UK/French/German casual games market is worth $14bn: http://www.industrygamers.com/news/casual-game-sector-in-uk-france-and-germany-sees-14-billion-in-revenue/
• BigPoint opens new US studio: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/bigpoint-opens-san-francisco-studio

• G/L on games lawsuits and what you can do about them: http://www.gamerlaw.co.uk/2010/02/games-lawsuits-and-what-you-can-do.html
• Proposed Brazil games classification law still in the background: http://gamepolitics.com/2010/02/08/distributors-retailers-react-proposed-brazilian-game-ban [our thoughts on games censorship/classification in 2009 are here]
• EA self-censors Dante's Inferno in non-Middle East release: http://gamepolitics.com/2010/02/08/dante%E2%80%99s-inferno-banishes-itself-middle-east
• WoW China continues to be affected by local politics: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/local-politics-hits-world-of-warcraft-china-again
   

• Report on UK casual games market: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8507813.stm
• Article highlighting the convergence between virtual goods sales and Facebook Credits: http://www.virtualgoodsnews.com/2010/02/facebook-credits-boosting-virtual-goods-sales-by-25.html (no surprised here, since it is widely predicted that Facebook Credits are going to mean big boosts for virtual goods sales generally...but virtual goods still remain entirely untested legally...)